Georgia Theatre

Yacht Rock played a great show at the Georgia Theatre in Athens Saturday night.  The circumstances were a bit unusual in that there was a charity boxing match before us…?  Wait, what?  I'm not sure, but we loaded in around 7:30 PM and played at 10:15 PM.

Good show!  We did one big two hour set to a full house.  Everybody played well, and the stage sound was a bit quieter (and better) than usual.  I'm not sure why--I want to believe that as the sound guys have figured out how to make us sound good in this room, and don't try and mix us like we're some heavy rock band.  On stage, I think it was just the luck of starting from scratch with the monitor guy, and things never got turned up too loud in soundcheck.

We made good time getting back to Atlanta.  I think I was in bed by 3:30 AM.

I managed to stay awake through my church gig Sunday night.  Not always an easy thing.

PM Church Gig

Ahh, the PM church gig…a bit light on attendance tonight.

My tuning on flute and soprano was actually very good tonight (for a change), but there wasn't much to play.  My mix was ok;  I didn't get much help from the mostly tepid performance.

I won't even try and come up with anything else to say about it.  I did my job and I left.

The Usual

Yacht Rock played a private party last night (Saturday) in Atlanta.  Not too much to report here, other than our old friend Kevin Leahy subbed for the vacationing Mark Cobb on drums.  I've known Kevin since our freshman year at Indiana;  suddenly, that was more than twenty years ago.

Anyway, it was two seventy-five minute sets with a half hour break for the DJ to fill.  The setlist was very safe, as is always the case when we have subs.

One of the more exciting/annoying moments of the gig was the lady who invited herself on stage to dance not once but twice.  I guess there's the "everybody look at me!" thing, but I'm not sure what the thrill is.  We didn't even play Dancing in the Dark.

The other moment:  a lady (different from our dancer) offered us sexual favors in exchange for playing an encore.  We did play the extra tune, but there was no payoff.  Nor did she help break down or load our gear out (which I would have preferred).

In other news…videos from last week's Variety Playhouse show!

Dark Side of the Moon:









Anchorman stuff:































Also, videos (I'm still adding to this) from my organ trio gig at JCT Kitchen Thursday night.  David Ellington on organ and Justin Chesarek on drums.



Upcoming public gigs:

Saturday, February 8, Georgia Theatre (Athens, GA)
Friday, February 14, Train Cruise 
Saturday, February 15, Train Cruise
Sunday, February 16, Train Cruise
Monday, February 17, Train Cruise
Wednesday, February 26, Live Loud Cruise
Thursday, February 27, Live Loud Cruise
Friday, February 28, Live Loud Cruise
Saturday, March 1, Live Loud Cruise
Thursday, March 6, Mercy Lounge (Nashville, TN)
Friday, March 7, The Vogue (Indianapolis, IN)
Saturday, March 8, Lincoln Hall (Chicago, IL)
Saturday, March 14, The Gramercy Theatre (New York, NY)
Friday, April 11, Park Tavern (Atlanta, GA)
Friday, May 16 Park Tavern (Atlanta, GA)
Thursday, June 12 The Hamilton (Washington DC)
Friday, June 13 The Gramercy Theatre (New York, NY)
Friday, June 20 The Sinclair (Boston, MA)
Friday, October 17 Music Farm (Charleston, SC)

JCT Kitchen

I had a nice organ trio gig at JCT Kitchen Thursday night, part of their little series of music on Thursday, Friday, and Saturday nights.  Justin Chesarek played half of a drum set (1 cymbal, hi hats, snare, and bass drum), and David Ellington brought his smallest organ setup.  We were jammed in the corner, but made the best of it, with some of the gear on the bench that lines the wall, and Dave sat on his subwoofer instead of an organ bench.  Not only were we trying to fit into the space;  we were also fighting the less than ideal acoustics (all glass and concrete).  I played the entire gig with material plugging the bell of my horn.

The idea is that once the weather warms up, we'll be out on the patio (much more accommodating for space and volume).

So…still really fun, though!  We focused on Blue Note stuff from the late 50s and early 60s.  I found lead sheets online for many of the tunes--great songs that are underplayed!  Things got loose in a few spots, but overall I think it sounded good, especially considering that Dave and I got together to play through the tunes for the first time earlier in the day, and Justin played the gig without any rehearsal (but he's awesome enough to pull it off).

To top it off, they fed us afterwards.  Super good food.  We had burgers and fries all around.  I highly recommend them.

Giving Kitchen Benefit

Yacht Rock closed out the weekend with an easy gig for our chef friends at the Giving Kitchen's event.  This one was special because we were also celebrating the life and times of Ryan Hidinger, one of the founders of the Giving Kitchen who recently lost his fight with cancer.  Our third really cool gig of the weekend with a full house of really appreciative people.  I could get used to this.

Dustin subbed for Bencuya.  No big deal, though I wish we could've continued to polish the new tunes we added for the Anchorman soundtrack gig at the Variety this past Friday.  

They had a digital photo booth that we enjoyed a lot.

The music at load out was extremely loud for NO APPARENT REASON.

Taste It

Yacht Rock played the Taste of Dunwoody for, I think, the fourth year in a row.  Even more so than in previous years, this was a pretty big party with a rowdy crowd.  Dunwoody was rocking as much as the suburb could handle it.

Peter showed up with a new 12 string.  Reports from the guitar players are that it plays easily and sounds good, though the bridge is pulling up a little.  None of this means anything to me.  Still, congrats on the new purchase!

The food at the gig was pretty good.  We, of course, tend to gravitate towards the tacos.  Good ones from Tin Lizzy's and wherever Monkeyboy is in this picture.

So…three sets, no problems.  I think after the Variety Playhouse, everybody was pretty relaxed tonight, and some things that we played again might have even been a touch better because of it.  A good night all around!

Towards the end of the night, some dude jumped up in front of us and stage dived, then got up and did it again.  This is something different, especially off a two foot high stage in a hotel ballroom in Dunwoody.  Work on that for next year's Taste of Dunwoody!

Dark Side of the Moon/Anchorman

Yacht Rock played a sold out show at the Variety Playhouse last night, performing Pink Floyd's Dark Side of the Moon and most of both Anchorman soundtracks.  Great gig, particularly the DSOM.  I think we've now played it enough times that it's automatic.  For me, the show was much better than last year because I had a great reed.  Last year I had an ok reed and I think I played just ok.

The Anchorman (Anchorma?) stuff was cool--it was a mix of songs we play all the time (such as Ride Like the Wind, Lowdown), stuff we play but not regularly (Treat Her Like a Lady, Who's that Lady), and new songs (This is It, Hold Your Head Up).  I had a good night and felt mentally present through the whole thing (sometimes that is not the case and I have to wait for half the set for my brain to show up).  In particular, I enjoyed This is It, which is super hard I think for everybody in the band--instrumentally complicated and vocally challenging.  I worked on that one a lot, especially coordinating my vocal part with the moving string part.  Hope that one's a keeper.

The encores for the show were Afternoon Delight and Don't Stop Believin', the latter being a particularly guilty pleasure.  I sincerely love that song.



Awesome gig!  One of my favorites at the Variety.